This was the smallest number I could possibly narrow it down to, I'm
probably going to remember something I missed as soon as I hit
submit, but here we go. Like the title says this includes both series
and movies. Not in order.

a lot of people didn't like the ending to evangelion, but honestly i loved it. it shows what's going on in shinji's mind, and end of evangelion shows what is going on externally during the same timeframe. so they're basically happening at the same time, its really confusing haha.

well i hated the series ending (episodes 25 and 26 if i'm not wrong) but i kinda liked The End Of Evangelion. That movie was awesome, even though i had to read like 3 wiki pages and like 5 forum threads to understand it.

yeah i had to read a lot of stuff to understand it too, but once you get it it really hits hard, at least it did for me.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2002-06-11

that artice does a really good job of explaining the meanings behind the series if you ever feel like reading it. its a great article, i've showed it to all my friends and its helped them all understand it.

i almost included FLCL but it just barely got bumped off. i read some of the samurai champloo manga, i've been meaning to watch the anime but i've never gotten around to it. and i'll check out mind game, i absolutely love mindfuck anime.

anyone have any recs based on this list? i'm not a huge action or shonen fan, i mostly like drama and psychological stuff, and i like really tragic/sad stuff for some reason. but any recs based on this list would be appreciated, i've been looking for something new to watch.

i haven't read bakuman, i loved death note but bakuman never really appealed to me that much. and i'll check out clannad, its made by the same studio as air right? because i enjoyed air, although i haven't seen it in three of four years.

yeah i really like baccano!, its really hard to follow though because the story is told in a nonlinear fashion, like the episodes each focus around a different character or group of characters and they intertwine as the series progresses. it has a really cool, unique art style and mobster aesthetic which i liked a lot. i'd say check it out, especially considering its not that long. i need to watch it again because the nonlinear format got a little confusing, but i did like it a lot.

I can agree with that, the second season is kinda depressing. Gosick is like a Sherlock Holmes mystery show, but it's kind of psychological and Steins;Gate is just very well done in general. If you haven't seen it, watch Madoka Magica as well, it has action in it, but it's pretty messed up especially for a magical girl anime.

yeah i agree its awesome, the 1920's setting is really cool and original for an anime.

if i could recommend everybody one anime it would be gankutsuou: the count of monte cristo. its very loosely based on the original novel. its an absolutely visually stunning series, and probably the most emotionally engaging revenge tale i've ever seen. the way its paced so that it gives you just the right amount of information but still leaves you guessing with each episode is impeccable. its far and away the most overlooked anime out there, even if it has recieved great scores by critics.

also, has anyone else seen voices of a distant star? i haven't seen it in a few years, but i've never
been so depressed by anything in my life. its a short film, only about 20 minutes long, but oh my god
is it depressing. like i couldn't even get it off my mind for several days afterwards, its the only
anime/movie/book/anything that i'd almost go as far as to say is TOO sad, but undeniably a work of
art. especially considering it was basically made by one guy.

no, my friends keep bugging me to see it though. i was supposed to go with them a few years ago when it was playing at a theater nearby but something else came up and i couldn't go, and they've been trying to get me to see it ever since. i need to get around to it already though haha.

"damn. i say something about anime to my friends and they start talking about DBZ, Naruto and Bleach hahaha I'll start watching some of the recs you gave me tomorrow."

yeah dude i know how it is, thankfully i have a couple friends that showed me the path to the good stuff and then i just took it on my own from there. its just like music, the best stuff gets the least attention.

It didn't hit me hard, I'm sort of the opposite, I like really emotionally jarring things because they generally don't move me. When they're able to though, I know that they're very well done. I was kind of blown away by where it went and it's totally impressive that one guy could have done that on his own.

yeah he's done some other stuff to, people are talking about him becoming the next miyazaki. he did 5 centimeters per second and a few other films, most of them are pretty short. i actually haven't seen any of this other stuff that i can remember but i plan to soon.

if you haven't you should check out stuff by satoshi kon, he's probably my favorite anime director. he passed away pretty recently, but he left behind some real masterpieces, especially paranoia agent. paprika, perfect blue, millenium actress and tokyo godfathers are all directed by him as well and they're all among the best anime films in my opinion.

yeah that was his first movie, and its one of my favorites. he was able to work with a much bigger budget later in his career so stuff like paprika is amazing from an animation perspective, and paranoia agent (his only series as the rest of his work is all in films) is probably in my top 5. its only 13 episodes so you should definitely give it a chance, its one of the best psychological/mindfuck animes out there and its visually gorgeous.

the anime is great, and it follows the manga really closely. i've read up to about the 7th volume of the manga and its almost exactly the same so far. and i totally forgot about cowboy bebop when making this list, i should have spent a little more time on it because i definitely forgot about a few things, i could have expanded it to a top 30 or something.

i can understand why someone would dislike school days, but the way it all leads up to the climax in the last episode was great in my opinion, i've never seen anything that transforms from a lighthearted romantic comedy into straight up horror by the end of the series, other than maybe shadowstar narutaru.

death note was great up until L died. not that i have a problem with him dying, its just the way they handled the story after they killed him off was retarded. they introduced some half-assed, boring new characters and carried it on longer than it needed to go. Light should have succeeded in his plan after L died, either that or L should have caught him.

"good list. 3 and 11 are amazing. I would also add Wolf's Rain, Cowboy Bebop, and Ouran Highschool Host Club."

finally somebody else who has seen gankutsuou! i love that series, its probably my all time favorite.

"should watch texnolyze if you can handle completely bleak and depressing stories. also bakemonogatari is one of the best recent animes also no GITS?"

yeah i've started texnolyze, i need to finish it. if you haven't seen haibane renmei or serial experiments lain you should check them out as some of the same people worked on them. and i could never really get into GITS tbh, the movie was alright but the series got kind of boring for me, maybe i should try it again.

well to be fair this isn't supposed to be a best of all time list, just my favorites. i'm not saying they're objectively the best or anything. either way i wouldn't include YYH though. i've never been able to get into many shonen series.

fair enough, but just because you don't like something doesn't make it "fat nasty trash." at least we agree on some of them. i'm not sure what you would hate about haibane renmei though. and i couldn't really get into brotherhood, the origninal FMA was a lot darker imo.